Ordinarily customers entrust their personal information to business enterprises as a condition for obtaining a service. For example, if a customer wants to obtain a cable television service, the customer must provide his address, telephone number, credit card number, and possibly, Social Security number to the cable television company. Once the customer provides this information, he or she has no control over how the information is used and cannot prevent the company from using the information contrary to the will of the customer.
For an instance, the cable television company may use the customer's telephone number to make undesired telemarketing calls to the customer. The company can call the customer at inconvenient times or at a telephone number at which the customer does not want to be called in the absence of an emergency. Therefore, a need exists for an improved method that provides customers with a greater control over how their information is used.